RUSSIA US ASTRONAUT ON BOARD RUSSIAN ROCKET TO MIR SPACE STATION

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(14 Mar 1995) Natural Sound • • An American astronaut has blasted off into space history, onboard a Russian rocket. • • NASA astronaut, Norman Thagard, was onboard the spacecraft bound for the space station Mir. • • And there will be another record on the mission. The crew will get a lift home with the Americans onboard Atlantis. • • A small N-A-S-A delegation cheered as astronaut Norman Thagard • blasted off early Tuesday morning (6.11 GMT,) becoming the first American to ride a Russian rocket into space. • • Thagard and his two Russian colleagues will be the first to go up in one spaceship and come down in another. • • The rocket will dock with the Russian space station Mir. • • Thagard and cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov • will spend two days in orbit before their Soyuz capsule docks with • the space station Mir. • • Thagard's trip is part of a space cooperation agreement between • the two countries that is intended to lead to the construction of an international space station beginning in 1997. • • Four other N-A-S-A astronauts will follow Thagard to Mir over the • next three years, traveling on the space shuttle Atlantis. • • Atlantis is due to dock at Mir in June, carrying two Russian • cosmonauts and Thagard's backup, astronaut Bonnie Dunbar. • • Thagard, Dezhurov and Strekalov, along with Dunbar, will hitch a ride back to Earth aboard the shuttle. • • Only once have U-S and Russian spacecraft docked in orbit, during the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975. • • Mir has been aloft for nine years and crew changes are a routine affair barely noticed by the Russian media or the public. • • Tuesday's flight had only marginally more attention due to the • American involvement. • • 51-year-old Thagard spent the past year training at cosmonaut • headquarters in Star City outside Moscow. • • N-A-S-A selected him for the job because of his space experience. • • He's flown on space shuttles four times and has an extensive medical and technical background. • • He is a doctor, engineer and pilot and also speaks Russian. • • Thagard will work on medical experiments during his three months • aboard Mir. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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